


Parameters

by likebunnies



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: F/M, Partnership, Psychic Bond, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 07:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6275194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likebunnies/pseuds/likebunnies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crane and Abbie explore their connection through the tablets further… and set up some guide lines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Parameters

**Author's Note:**

> Post “Into the Wild” tablet fic but no smut. Not quite ready for that yet which is shocking coming from me. Perhaps I'll get to it.

Abbie looked at the clock and then at the tablets once more. She held the rune, turning it over and over in her hand, feeling its familiar and comforting power. She had five more minutes to go.

They agreed she would wait half an hour so he could drive some distance from the archives before she would try out the two parts of the metallic symbol on the tablets. Crane wanted to keep trying varying distances between them and this would be a start. This was the first chance Abbie had to try the thing and she was staring at the clock, waiting for it to be precisely 1:30 p.m. like Crane had asked. She wasn’t to know where he was going or what he would be doing when he got there. There would be no guessing involved with this attempt.

The last five minutes ticked by at a creeping pace but finally it was time. Abbie stood and separated the pieces like Crane had showed her and peered at the tablets, preparing herself for this. He warned her it could be a bit of a jolt so she took a deep breath and placed the pieces in their places.

She was there. She was with him. There was no sudden jolt like he had warned but a feeling of calm. He was in his favorite bookstore and sipping a cup of tea. Not only could she see that, she could feel… him… as if they were one. Abbie could feel the slow swallow of hot tea and taste it… English Breakfast. She could feel but not quite hear the clink when he set down the cup on the saucer. She could smell the old book he picked up and feel the pages beneath fingertips. But more than that, she could feel his heartbeat in his chest… her chest? An easy, at rest beat. He was hungry, his stomach rumbling, and the tea wasn’t enough. And he was thinking of her while pretending to read this book and the thoughts were warm, caring… yet electric…

Abbie stepped back, forcing herself away from the tablets.

Crane had only said he could feel her presence, not that he could feel everything about her. Either he didn’t share the entire story or she could feel more. Was it the time she spent in the Catacombs or all the time she spent revering this symbol? Would he eventually be able to do that same?

She wasn’t sure. Seeing where someone was and what they were doing was intrusive enough unless used at the proper time. She certainly had more questions than answers right now. A lot more questions for her partner.

She dialed Crane’s phone number and waited for him to answer.

“How’s the book store? And your tea?” she asked. “You might want to pick up a book on remote viewing while you’re there and get some doughnuts on your way back. Oh, and Crane… we have a few things to discuss.”

^*^*^*^*^*^*^

“Maybe it’s because you were in peril?” Crane asked. He had trying to figure out for over an hour now, only handling the tablets with thick oven mitts on his hands. “I didn’t, shall we say, explore much once I could see that you were in dire need of assistance and was worried.”

“Possibly, but we’re going to have to set up some ground rules concerning this new resource we’ve found. There have to be certain parameters,” Abbie said with a pointed look in his direction. She wasn’t sure why she was upset or what she was upset about. He didn’t know this and certainly hadn’t looked in on her on purpose. He kept reassuring her that he could feel her presence but couldn’t feel… her.

“Of course we shall need rules, Lieutenant. Just like in your home, I do not want to intrude upon your privacy,” Crane said, putting the tablets aside and pulling off the oven mitts. “But we still have to experiment in a controlled environment. You can be the one who goes a certain distance and waits and I’ll see if it still works. Or you can try it again now and see if it was a one time thing.”

“Okay. You go sit over there,” Abbie said, motioning to the older part of the archives and not the laboratory he had set up. “I don’t want to zap you with some unknown superpowers if you stand too close.”

“No, I think first we should try it whilst you are near me. If we are going to experiment with distance, then we will start there. Then I will touch it again and see if things change if I’m closer to you than Rochester,” Crane said. Abbie reluctantly agreed.

He stood across from her, the lab table separating them, and Abbie prepared herself to touch the rune pieces to the tablets again. She looked at him and he nodded as she set the metal down on the stone.

Once again, she could see where he was and it was strange because it was where she was at presently. Like seeing double but from a different viewpoint. She could feel him and sense how he felt about her as he stood there watching her. She couldn’t read his thoughts but it was more of a general feeling. How much he cared. That same warmth she felt before. Abbie didn’t pull away but explored everything more.

His heartbeat. His pulse. The soft flutter of his eyelids as he blinked. A twinge of something always under the surface. Something familiar that she felt, too, when she allowed herself. She could see herself, the way that he saw her. It was strange but not as strange as when he put his hands over hers.

It was too much. Too many feelings going back and forth and she had to pull away before she lost herself completely. It unsettled her stomach and her mind. He jumped back, his hands going behind his back, and he looked surprised by what happened.

“I wanted to see…” he tried to explain, but with this thing, there was only one explanation. They were tied to each other. They were as one… these artifacts could make them one whole if they let them. His thoughts and her thoughts working together… they could do this. With time. They could be one while instead of two halves with enough time.

“That will take some practice,” Abbie said, pulling over a stool and sitting down. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her thoughts. It wasn’t that easy to do. “I could feel you, Crane. I could see me but I could feel you.”

“Let me try it from this distance. Stay right there, Lieutenant. Once we determine what either of us can feel or see, we can discuss how to use this in the future,” he instructed. Abbie didn’t move as Crane touched the metal halves to the tablet. He seemed to be lost in some sort of trance, eyes closed at first but then open and darting around the room, but not seeing what was in front of him. More like seeing what was in his head or seeing what Abbie was looking at. He only began to focus again once he pulled his hands away from the tablet.

“Was it different this time?” Abbie asked. Crane was staring at her, looking a little lost.

“It was like I was stuck in a loop, Lieutenant. I could see you staring at me but I was still me… looking at you. I had no sense you were in trouble this time. Just a feeling of calm. A warm feeling,” he said, closing his eyes as if he was trying to remember.

“I had the same warm feeling. Like…”

“Yes. Like that,” Crane finished for her. “Now what are the ground rules you wanted to discuss? There are some rather obvious ones for I don’t want to intrude upon your privacy.”

“And I don’t want to intrude upon yours,” Abbie added. “This thing works both ways, you know.”

“Of course. It is not a toy. It’s got a power that should not be trifled with,” Crane said. He put put on the oven mitts and pulled the rune off of the tablets and made them one piece again. He did the same with the tablets. Everything was back to being whole. Except perhaps the Witnesses.

“Emergency use is allowed. You don’t know where I am and I haven’t answered my phone in hours, then you can use the psychic hotline here. If I’m soaking in the bathtub and you want to see how much longer until you can use the tub–”

“I would never do that to you – without your permission or knowledge,” he said. She pondered a moment about his addition on the end of his sentence. In time it took him to drive back from the bookstore, she had thought about what could be done with this, how the two of them could connect. If he didn’t feel the same way when using it, though, she didn’t know… a lot of things.

“So there we go. For now, it’s a tool. A very important tool that connects us but only if there are no other options. We will still experiment with it and collect data and figure out how strong it is. That’s important. We should definitely see if it works in the Masonic. Or what if it Jenny touches the runes to it – hopefully it doesn’t kill her – and we, well you work out that part of it. Here in your lab,” Abbie said. When she stopped talking, she looked up and met his eyes. They had a curious sparkle to them. Like he was seeing her for the first time. It made a shiver run down her spine.

“With it, I have never felt closer to anyone. Not even…” he said, finally looking away from her.

“Yes, I know.”

“So what do we do now?” he asked, his eyes meeting hers again.

“That… I don’t know yet. But I’m sure you and I, together, we’ll figure it out.”

^*^*^*^*^*^*^

The End


End file.
